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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The past decade has seen huge changes in the types of technology
standards that most schools have. Even two years ago the SAS technology
standards were lists of concrete skills organized around types of tools such as
word processors, spreadsheets, and desktop layout programs. Depending upon
grade level, the standards looked something like this:

●Insert header and
footer into a Word document.

●Create a graphic in a
paint program and export it as a JPEG file.

●Convert spreadsheet
data into a bar graph.

In January 2009 SAS adopted the Technology Integration Framework:
Grades K-12.1 (Please see details at end of this post.) The framework is based
on the National
Educational Technology Standards for Students or (NETS-S)2. The International Society for Technology in Education who
developed the standards, explains them in this way:

NETS are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge
students need to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly
global and digital world.

Simply being able to use technology is no longer enough. Today's
students need to be able to use technology to analyze, learn, and explore.
Digital age skills are vital for preparing students to work, live, and
contribute to the social and civic fabric of their communities.3

The adoption of the SAS Technology Integration Framework marks
two major shifts as described below.

Shift from...

Shift to...

●isolated technology skills

●technology skills embedded into 21st
century learning skills such as creating, communicating, collaborating, and
problem solving

●stand-alone computer classes

●technology integration in every grade
and in every content area

Our framework is well written, but it is not written in
kid-friendly language. We use the terms4 below to make it more
accessible to our students. I’ve also listed a few examples in each section.

Make It!

Use technology to show your creativity.

Art students creating
stop motion movies to animate their art.

Grade 3 students
creating digital posters to explain the board game they designed.

Grade 4 students
creating a collage or scrapbook page with photos from the year.

Say It!

Use technology to communicate.

Grade 3 classes Skyping
grandparents to learn about inventions.

Grade 4 students
working on oral fluency through choral reading podcasts.

Grade 5 students
Skyping family members to give them a weekly update on their activities and
progress.

Share it!

Use technology to collaborate.

Using the comment
feature in Google Docs to give their writing partners feedback on first drafts.

Find It!

Our librarians Kate
Brundage and Rosa Shin-Gay teach search skills during library classes. Students
apply these skills in the classroom with the assistance of teachers.

Exploring fake websites
to learn how to check the validity of web site sources.

Solve It!

Use technology to think critically, solve problems and make
decisions.

Grade 3 students gather
data and analyze data on developing and developed countries.

Grade 4 play the Great
Ocean Rescue computer simulation to gather information, think critically and make
decisions to solve problem affecting our oceans.

Protect It!

Use our core values whenever using technology.

·Grade 3 students learn
to be responsible for keeping their password and other personal information
safe online.

·Grade 4 students are
respectful when they leave appropriate comments on each other’s blogs.

·Grade 5 students learn
about their digital footprint and put those skills to use as they start using
school email and blogging.

·All grades learn about
their responsibility to help stop cyber bullying and the compassionate way to
treat students who are being bullied.

Use It!

Use technology devices and programs to improve your learning.

·Students in all grades
learn a wide variety of technology skills as they complete classroom projects.
These skills include but are not limited to word processing, typing, movie
making, podcasting, desktop publishing, graphical design, graphing, mind
mapping and using spreadsheets.

·They use a variety of
devices including computers, ipads, cameras, and digital microscopes.

The excitement in each Grade 5 classroom has been palpable
this year as students have been taking delivery of their new MacBook Pros.
Three of the thirteen Grade 5 classes are piloting a 1:1 program and the
remaining ten classes are 1:2. It is all
part of the intermediate school’s investigation into the best model to achieve
individualized learning for our students.

Each homeroom is becoming familiar with their new MacBooks
as well as being introduced to Google Apps for Education. The hardware and
software combine beautifully to enable students to develop effective
communication and collaboration skills and to provide them with an opportunity
to create authentic, relevant learning experiences.

Another exciting initiative is each student’s electronic
portfolio, or e-portfolio, using Google’s blogging platform, Blogger. The e-portfolio
will contain posts of work samples along with reflections about their learning.
The process of reflecting enables students to become more successful as they
know how they learned and can identify what they would have done differently.

One of the first posts that Grade 5 will complete is to
assess their reading fluency. They will use an online tool to record as they
read an extract from their 'just right' book. After listening to the recording
they self assess using the following guiding questions:

Did I quickly self-corrected mistakes or omissions?

Did I stop to take a breath where there was no
punctuation?

Did I follow the punctuation signals such as
commas and periods?

Did I read with expression that conveyed
meaning?

Students should be able to identify what they did well along
with areas for improvement. The recording is embedded within a post along with
their response to the guiding questions.

Weeks later, after completing their second recording, the
structure of the blog enables them to easily return to their original post.
Students will replay their initial ‘reading fluency’ recording and compare it
to their latest attempt. It is here that the greatest potential for learning
occurs! During conferencing, each student can compare and determine if they did,
in fact, improve. Students can refer back to their reflection where they
identified their areas of strength and weakness. Is the weakness still there?
What strategies did they employ to improve? Providing students with evidence of
growth, or lack thereof, allows them to see the value of responding to
feedback. They learn to set achievable goals, outline strategies to achieve
those goals, and to be held accountable for achieving them.

The e-portfolio will stay with them during their time as an
SAS student, providing them with a perfect picture of their growth and
experiences as a learner. Along with the technical skills required to set up,
post and embed work samples onto their blog, students have discussed and agreed
upon a set of responsible and ethical behaviors necessary to build a positive
‘digital footprint’. They have been asked to consider the additional audiences
for their posts: friends; teachers; parents; extended family; even universities
and future employers! There are coming to grips with the fact that their digital
footprint starts now. What do they want it to say about them in the future?

Last school year was the pilot year for iPads in the Primary School. Both teachers and students had first hand experience using iPads as a learning tool in class.

This year the Primary division launched sets of iPads in each primary classroom. On average, two teachers now share a cart of 12 iPads allowing teachers and students multiple opportunities to integrate it into daily lessons.

First Graders working on posters

When it comes to integrating technology in the primary classroom, teachers have one main goal. Whatever the learning activity is, it must add value to a student’s learning. The class set iPads have applications that specifically target key learning areas. From a technology point of view, there are also apps that allow students to create and communicate. Apps such as Pages, Keynote or iMovie are important applications because they provide a platform which allow primary students to create projects with minimum ease.

Using Pages in First Grade

Last school year, for example, all first graders created a Keynote, Apple’s powerpoint. This year, students will be creating much more. Posters in Pages, a math problem in a screen capture app or a simple iMovie.

Technology can now be seen in all facets of the Primary School and it is not just iPads. The new World Language classrooms are also designed to allow teachers to seamlessly integrate technology. Just like class teachers, they are supported by a technology integrator. The new Promethean Interactive Whiteboards are a feature of the new language rooms along with Voicelift, a device teachers can wear enabling them to be heard wherever they are in the room.

Zhang Laoshi teaching Chinese

Regardless of what technology is employed in a class, the goal is the same. To advance a child’s learning whilst recognizing the importance of digital learning.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

"I saw you texting during the keynote speech." A couple of teachers whispered this to me as if I had been naughty. I just smiled.

We had just listened to a fantastic opening session by Dr. Austin Buffum, an expert in the Professional Learning Community (PLC) process. Of course, to many people it did look like I was busily sending text messages to one of my friends. Of course, that is exactly not what I was doing. I was tweeting!

There is an important difference between texting and tweeting. Texting is a private message between two people. A tweet, on the other hand, is a public message that is broadcast out to whomever follows you and has an interest in what you are saying. You have 140 characters to get across a short, sweet point that is tweetworthy.

Many people do not yet see the point of tweeting. "Why would I care what someone eats, or if Ashton Kutcher is having coffee." I agree! For me, however, it is the most valuable professional development tool in my bag of tricks. Who you follow, what you contribute and the conversations that you have are the secrets to the effective use of Twitter.

The list of people I follow is mostly comprised of other educational technology coordinators, coaches, administrators and techy teachers. We all share something in common...the desire to share and a passion for good teaching. Most of us tweet out photos, quips, links, experiences, struggles and celebrations. These tweeps are my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and we all grow from what we share, even though most of us have never met.

So what was I doing during Dr. Buffum's opening address? I was having a rich conversation with other members of the audience who were also tweeting, such as Heather Dowd, Tim Stuart, Anthony Selley, Shaun Kirkwood, John Gaskell and Jemma Hooykaas. We shared the bits that resonated with us and recorded the experience as it happened. This is the way I take notes now during many conferences. Several more SAS faculty in the room were following along with what we were saying, lurking and learning. We used the #sasedu hashtag to tag our school-related tweets and #atplc when referring to PLCs.

Not only were people in the room learning from each other, there were thousands of other Twitter users reading what we were sharing. Kerri-Lee Beasley, a Digital Literacy Coach at UWC was following along. She tweeted:

The power of Twitter comes from the connections we make. It takes time to build up a good list of people to follow and you have to contribute to the conversation to get people to follow you. Once the ball starts rolling, however, it can be one of the most professionally rewarding things you can do.

If you really want to see what I was doing with my nose in my phone and my thumbs frantically tapping away? Check out my Storify round-up of the Twitter action from Day 1: http://storify.com/jayatwood/plc-institute-sas. The next time you see someone on their phone during a workshop ask them, "Were you tweeting?!"